by Linda Palmer
The wolf, however, was most definitely not.
As entranced as I was frightened, I backed away until my heels met the stairs. My gaze stayed glued to my four-legged patient, who actually appeared to be morphing. Short limbs elongated. Fur became flesh. Pointy ears and a snout took on decidedly human shapes. A mysterious shimmer distorted everything, but the end result was crystal clear.
A naked guy lay where a wolf had been.
But not just any naked guy.
It was Cade.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cade
Blood pulsed through Lily's veins so hard that my sensitized ears could hear it—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Her demeanor said this isn't real, but her eyes had to be telling her it was.
Suddenly, she fumbled for the banister.
"Lily!"
I somehow kept her on her feet, but only until she gasped, twisted free, and ducked past me to stumble to the kitchen area. There she snatched up a fly swat and spun to face me, wielding it as bravely as she had her umbrella when the pack surrounded her.
I started forward.
"Stay right there!" Her gaze dipped below my waist.
I looked down, too. "Shit!" Cursing the whole time, I grabbed her abandoned towel and wrapped it around my waist. "Sorry, Lils. Do you have spare jeans?"
"Like you could wear them."
She sounded so normal that my laugh sliced through the tension. "I knew you could handle this. I knew it!"
"This being some kind of joke?"
"No, no, no. It's real. It's all real, just like I told you."
She slowly lowered her weapon, never looking away from me. "Who are you? No. Scratch that. What are you?"
Time for truth. "Cade Messig, undercover wolf, at your service."
Abruptly turning, she bent over the sink and gagged several times. But nothing came up. When she turned to face me again, I tried to read her expression. It wasn't fear exactly…
I couldn't help narrowing my gaze. "Do I gross you out?"
"I love wolves."
Had she really just said that? I wanted to laugh at the ludicrousness of the situation, but didn't have it in me. "You must know I'd never hurt you."
She snorted. "Why? Because we're supposedly dating?"
"No, because I'd never attack an innocent human."
"Meaning you aren't? Geez, Cade. Is this the 'supernatural' element you were talking about? Your so-called gang turns into a pack of Wolfmen?"
"I know, I know. I should've warned you. But think, Lily. Did you really want to know?"
She had no answer.
"Besides, there are rules, okay? I've already told you too much. I could get you, myself, and Ben into real trouble if the Corteggio finds out."
"The who? Wait. Never mind. Don't tell me." With her hands over her ears, she made her way to the nearest barstool and sat on it. I stayed where I was so she wouldn't feel threatened. "You're a wolf."
"Yes."
"A real one, with fur, paws, and a tail."
"Yes."
"Are there lots of wolves like you?"
"Thousands probably. All over the world."
"Is Ben one?"
"No." I peeked through the mini-blinds, though I knew I wouldn't see anything. It was almost midnight, after all. "Where are we?"
"Elise Merchant's garage." That's all she gave me, but it was enough.
"Thought I caught a whiff of her." I glanced at the stairs. "What's up there?"
"No idea. A bedroom, I guess." She told me the purpose of the apartment.
I nodded that I got it. "Maybe the nephew left some clothes."
She shrugged.
"Do not move." I shot up the steps, my damp towel flapping.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lily
I propped my elbows on the bar and hid my face in my hands, trying to focus on one single thing instead of every freakin' thing. I couldn't. It was all just so…impossible.
How could werewolves live their lives without normal people knowing it? They couldn't, that's how. So a lot of people were keeping a very big secret, and the more who did, the better the chance of someone spilling the beans. I could see the headline now: My Daughter Dated a Werewolf!
Suspecting I'd actually already seen those words at one time or another on a tabloid at the grocery store, I acknowledged the critical difference between knowing and believing. Did I know? Yes. More than I should according to Cade. Did I believe? I was still struggling with that, but my resistance to the truth didn't alter it. Whether I wanted it to or not, my whole world had changed.
Suddenly I wished I was home with my folks again, taking down the Christmas tree, packing up lights and ornaments, burning the wadded wrapping paper in the chimenea out back to watch the bright colors flame. Dad always had answers for the difficult questions, and if he didn't, he pointed me in the right direction.
"Lily?" Cade was back and giving me a worried look. "Do you need something to drink? I should get you something to drink."
I saw that he'd found some gray sweats and a faded St. Louis Cardinals tee. His wet hair and the smell of herbal shampoo meant he'd showered. I couldn't imagine how unless there was also a bathroom upstairs. I mean, I surely hadn't been sitting in total oblivion that long.
"I had bottled water. I threw it at the…the…." Ramifications slammed me, one of those domino moments when one shocking realization truly hits home and then crashes into another. Overwhelmed again, I blurted the first thought lucid enough to verbalize. "Why did those werewolves attack like that? They don't even know me."
"They weren't attacking. It was more like…um…bullying you to get a rise out of me." He was checking out the fridge and cabinets. "And we call ourselves Weres." He slowly turned to face me. "You realize there are other things out there besides us, right?"
More dominoes. These, the ones I'd dreaded most. Suddenly my eyes filled and spilled over. I broke into great, gulping sobs. Cade shot around the edge of the bar and tried to hug me. I wouldn't let him. The solid ground that was my life had somehow turned into shifting sands. And while I wasn't normally a cry baby, there'd been nothing normal about tonight.
It took a while, but I pulled it together.
That's when Cade, who'd been hovering, spoke again. "I'm so freakin' sorry this happened. I never meant to drag you into my life. In fact, I tried very hard not to."
"I remember."
"So how in the hell did we end up here?"
"Do you believe in fate?"
"Yeah, sure. I can look back on my life and see the why of everything that's happened except my father abandoning my mom. And I have a feeling I'll understand that someday, too." He hesitated. "You think we're fated?"
I shrugged. Shifting gears, I showed him the first aid kit. "We should probably take care of your injuries while we talk." A sudden thought froze me in place. "Oh God. Did that black wolf bite me?"
"Hunter? He wouldn't dare. He could definitely hurt you without meaning to, though. What were you thinking, going after him?"
His question reminded me of our first meeting. "That you needed help, and I had a pointy umbrella?"
"But I didn't need help. Neither of us were in any real danger, though I'll admit this went a lot further than it should have. Don't think Hunter isn't going to catch hell for it, because he is."
"So them taunting me really was a big joke?"
With a heavy sigh, he stepped closer. "Maybe, and a lame one at that." He tilted my face so he could inspect it. "Do those scratches hurt?"
"Not as much as these." I turned.
Cade lifted the hem of my top in back.
I heard his sucked-in breath. My heart flip-flopped. "A bite?"
"Road burn. Why couldn't those idiots just leave you alone? Is the concept of laying low really that hard to understand?" He touched a spot on my back. "Maybe I should check out your whole body." He caught the hem of my shirt.
I slapped his hand away. "In your dreams, Lobo."
"I've already seen all of you, you know." He pointed to the floor and the pile of wet clothing I'd shed earlier.
I remembered him lying nearby while I stripped. "But you were an unconscious wolf!"
His answer was a grin. Opening the kit, he rummaged through it and pulled out cotton balls and alcohol. "Sit on the stool."
I did.
"This may sting."
"Ach!"
Cade blew on the scrapes he'd just doused, a crazy sexy move that sent a shiver down my spine. I suddenly felt oddly reckless, bold, and very needy. What would he do if I kissed him? I squirmed a little just thinking about it.
"Don't move. I'm almost done." He put a Band-Aid on my shoulder. "There. I predict a full recovery." Pulling my hair to the side, he placed a kiss just under my right ear.
I nearly fell off the stool. "Your turn."
He pulled his shirt over his head and took my place.
For a moment, all I could do was stare in horror at his back, crisscrossed with old scars and new injuries. I felt nauseated again, but squashed it. "I have so many questions."
"I'll tell you as much as I can."
While I applied antiseptic to his wounds—he didn't even flinch—I mentally prioritized. "I want to know all about your mission."
"I'll have to give you a little background story before any of it will make sense."
"So do it."
"Okay. I've told you there's more out there than Weres. I can't say exactly what, but all you really need to know is that Sups have been around longer than humans and rely on a group called the Corteggio for management. This thing is a dinosaur, okay? Lots of really old guys with older ideas. For example, they believed that all Weres were evil up until a few years ago. What they didn't know is that their bounty hunters aka 'Palatines' were perpetrating that myth while secretly creating and enslaving young men to do their dirty work. Are you with me so far?"
"I think so."
"The godfather Palatine was a man named Titus Leopold. His empire was called le bras du loup, which means Arm of the Wolf. A couple of years ago, the truth finally came out. Titus died during a mutiny, and every Were who didn't want to be one anymore went to this amazing healer who'd found a way to cure us, Andee Rivera. I mean Killebrew. She just married a former wolf named Jonah. Met him about a year ago. Good guy."
"So why don't you take the cure?"
"Because I was born like this. It's half of who I am. My identity. Besides, it's not required or anything, so I'm not breaking any laws."
I decided to give that more thought later. "And what does all this have to do with Ben?"
"Ben's job is tracking down packs, both new and old, to find out if they've taken the cure. If not, he finds out why and gets everyone eighteen and over to sign a contract stating they will never shift with intent to commit a crime, never reveal the secret of their duality except to loved ones, and never compromise the other mysteries of the preternatural world. If they sign, he and his men keep track of them from a distance. If they don't sign, they're monitored twenty-four-seven."
"Wow. Ben must have a lot of guys working for him."
"You have no idea."
"Are there a lot of new packs?" I was struggling to wrap my head around everything, in particular the concept of a Wolfman signing anything.
"Yes. Full- and half-blooded offspring are born to Weres every day. Plus, there's a Native American tribe that actually has a metaphysical process by which tribe members who want to can become werewolves. Canis lupus play a huge role in their mythology."
"Is there some kind of master list with every wolf's name on it? Even if Ben has an army, he's got to be stretched pretty thin."
"There are some powerful psychics all over the world helping out. It's sort of like Professor X in the X-Men movies. They can tune in on anyone, anywhere, anytime."
"Do you have any idea how crazy all this sounds to me?"
Cade gave me a wry smile. "No more crazy than it sounds to me, and I've grown up with it."
"How long do you stay with each pack?"
"Until my mission is complete. First, I infiltrate. Once the pack is comfortable with me, I find out if anyone is recruiting or creating."
"Creating as in making baby wolves?"
"No. Creating as in biting someone, with or without their permission, to turn them, which is against the law."
"Wow. So it all begins with a bite, just like the movies." My vivid imagination supplied a colorful shot of that. "And if they are?"
"I go straight to Ben and report it."
"What if they aren't?"
"I stick around to learn what they do for fun. I also check out the alpha. If he doesn't seem smart enough to be in charge, I assume he has a silent partner, most likely a human that's using the pack. With luck, I get enough dirt to kick-start a formal investigation."
"And then you leave?"
"And then I move on to the next."
"Sounds dangerous. Have you ever gotten busted by the pack?"
"Once."
"What happened?"
"I wound up with a broken arm."
"Oh!" So he'd been less than truthful about that.
"I know what you're thinking, and it wasn't that arm, okay? It was my left one."
This just kept getting worse. "I can't talk about this anymore, but I am wondering how the pack knew where I was."
"They didn't. They knew where I was, and they were hell bent on finding out why I'd come back when I'd told them I was leaving the state."
"I'm wondering that myself."
"It's because of the meeting your customer told you about."
"Hand me a Band-Aid, would you?"
He did.
I applied it to what looked like a bite. "So what does Mara Foster have to do with anything?"
"Since she's been seeing wolves, I'm wondering if her husband might be the brains behind the brawn. Mike, my alpha, has been on edge for weeks now. So much that we've all noticed. Everyone has a theory. Rocky thinks it's because Mike's got to go to some kind of 'summit.'"
My mouth fell open.
He nodded. "Exactly. Choco said he'd heard a bunch of packs are going to be banded together. One of the other guys thinks Mike doesn't want any part of it."
"I can't believe Ben is calling you home now, when all this is about to happen."
"I haven't exactly mentioned the meeting to him."
"Ah. So while he's thinking it's all good—"
He shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it isn't."
"Why leave him out of the loop?"
"Because I don't know anything for sure, and he has a tendency to rush to judgment."
I thought about that.
"Look, Lily, I've been eyewitness to enough mischief to know the pack has broken a few laws. I even have proof in the form of photos and some other stuff. That's all Ben needs to do his job. I, on the other hand, need to know more to do mine."
I didn't ask questions as I slipped around him to check his chest. "I like the tattoo." I traced the outline of a full yellow moon with a howling wolf silhouetted against it.
He caught my hand in his. Our gazes met until I looked away and began dabbing some alcohol on a cut.
Cade hissed in pain.
I didn't let that distract me. His rational for staying just didn't make sense. "Does your staying have anything to do with your mom?"
"How could it? No, it's about the pack, and our current leader's inability to lead it. This JT Foster guy? Maybe his meeting is Mike's. Maybe it's not. But two and two seem to be adding up to four, and I need to see this through. I promise I have no intentions of jumping in with both feet."
"You'd better not be lying. And JT's last name isn't Foster. It's Paxton. Jonathan Tanner Paxton."
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cade
"Son of a bitch!"
Lily jerked her hands back. "Oh God. I'm so sorry I hurt you."
I didn't correct her. I couldn't. My brain reeled from the shock of hearing my father's na
me.
"You still haven't told me why you were in the woods tonight."
He was here. The jerk I'd been stalking for five years was here. I tried to remember everything anyone had said about him. It was hard to focus. I guess deep inside I'd doubted I would ever find him.
"Cade?"
"Hm?"
"Why were you in the woods tonight?"
She's saying something.
"Oh. I was, um, watching for you. The pack caught my scent. Of course they wanted to know what I was up to. I tried to lose them and double back. My plan backfired. They got to you first."
"How could they possibly know we're connected? You've gone to so much trouble to sneak around."
I was finding it easier to breathe now. "The noses always know. I caught hell after the pub thing. I caught it again the night I dropped by your house. I wasn't followed, but they recognized your scent and naturally assumed we're hooking up. "
"Naturally?"
"To them, yeah. There's no shortage of chicks hanging with the pack, and most of them are passed around. Me keeping you for myself is new. They're all wondering if you're the one. The guys may be players, but they totally respect the mating-for-life thing."
Her ready smile faded. "Was your mother passed around?"
"She's told me it wasn't like that, which made the desertion even worse. While she was sticking to one guy, he was screwing every female within reach." My eyes brimmed, embarrassing the hell out of me. "He couldn't believe in her loyalty because he was incapable of it, himself. All she got for her devotion was a half-human rug rat no wolf would claim."
"I'm so sorry."
"We've done okay."
"Thanks to Ben?"
"Partly. I've said he saved our lives, but the truth is Mom and I would've have made it without him. She's a fighter, kind of like you, and gives every new venture a 'good Messig go.'" Putting my father out of my mind, I slipped my hand behind Lily's neck and pulled her closer. My thighs kept her pinned there. Ever so slowly, I moved in until our lips brushed. That barely kiss touched me to the core. She put her arms around me, carefully avoiding the repair work she'd done on my back.
Logically none of this should've been happening. She was way too trusting and kind. What she and I knew about each other could be written on a tiny sticky note. Yet I felt as if we'd been together forever. Sort of like grade school sweethearts who'd somehow survived the middle, junior, and high school melodrama. What she was. What she wasn't. That didn't worry me. In fact, they were just mysteries to be explored. And the thought of doing that momentarily distracted me. My heart thudded in my chest.
